


Crow's Nest

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: :), Aged-Up Character(s), Child Neglect, Daisuga fluff is what I live for, Daisuga play rock paper scissors, Domestic Fluff, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Ennoshita chikara loves art, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, How Do I Tag, How do cars work, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Karasuno, Karasuno Family, Lev and Yaku are siblings, Light Angst, M/M, Misunderstandings, Nekoma, Nicknames, Nightmares, Not Beta Read, Not really edited, Orphanage, Sad Hinata Shouyou, Sad Nishinoya Yuu, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Volleyball, because why not, big house, i dunno, idk sounds cool to me, no consistent updates, rip haikyuu manga, what if a ton of the characters were children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25606285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Daichi Sawamura and Sugawara Koushi are a recently engaged couple who have just moved into a new house. It's in a lovely neighbourhood in a good school district,  There is only one thing missing from this perfect life of theirs... Children.Luckily, just thirty minutes away is Little Crow's Orphanage, where the children they have been looking for reside. What will happen? Just you wait and see...---
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, background Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 42
Kudos: 108





	1. Beginning

It was a warm, summer Sunday afternoon. Koushi Sugawara breathed in the smell of thick, sweet dust in the air. It was a nice day out, with the sun out and a lack of clouds in the sky. Trees were blurring as their van moved past them, and he could hear the occasional rattle from the boxes they stored in the back.  
Him and his fiancé, Daichi Sawamura, were finally taking the steps to start a family. They had started by purchasing a large and welcome family-sized house. With white bricks and red tiles, along with bright shining windows, it looked quite pretty, not to mention the white flowers planted by the previous owner. Currently, they were moving in, grabbing boxes from the van they’d driven to the site of their new residence. It was at the end of a cul de sac in a nice neighborhood, near a local school with good reviews. A lovely place to make a home. 

“Woah,” Daichi’s eyes scanned the big building, not believing it was really his. When they’d first found the building in the real-estate section of the local newspaper, they’d been in disbelief that such a place could exist. It fit their needs perfectly, with a lot of rooms to house a large family. Koushi had always been adamant on having a large family. He loved to nurture people, and children were just so perfect to him. Daichi smiled at his fiancé, flashing his whites. Koushi adored his smile, though he adored everything about his fiance.  
The last of the boxes finally got brought in, and the two lovers sat together brewing tea.  
“This is gonna be great.” Koushi said, looking wistfully at his new home. The walls were relatively bare, but he could already imagine them being lined with photos of their children. School photos, maybe they’d all go to the beach together. Maybe a team photo with a club? Sugawara was so excited.  
“It already is.” Daichi replied happily. Of course, they still had to unpack, and get everything ready. Not to mention they wanted children too. But that would wait. For now it was just him, his fiancé and their warm barley tea.

\+ A few weeks later +

Koushi finished tying up his shoelaces whilst Daichi was waiting for him. Four weeks of unpacking, moving furniture, and asking some old college friends to help unpack seemed more like four years. But for Koushi it was over. 

“Suga-san, are you really sure you want 5 children?” His friend Kuroo had asked him with a confused look. Kuroo had 2 children himself, but 5 seemed a bit much. Koushi had nodded in response to that question. He didn’t care what other people thought, because for him he loved children and couldn’t seem to be away from them. He wouldn’t even mind more than five. They had room, after all. And well paying jobs. Everything needed to house such a large family. Plus, talk was going around of a surplus amount of kids at the local orphanage, and Koushi thought it would be nice to take some off of their hands.  
“Okay.” Kuroo saw no point in arguing. He knew that Koushi wasn’t the type to give up on something, and he’d always rattled on and on about how much he wanted kids. This would probably shut him up for a while. “Maybe one day I can bring my kids over too! Lev’s been getting taller lately, and Yaku hates that he’s being left behind. All Kenma does is fawn over his console, maybe he’ll actually communicate for once with some new kids in his life. I’m expecting that your kids will be able to knock some sense into him!” He delivered a playful karate-chop over Koushi’s head as he said that.

“Hurry up slowpoke, otherwise we’re going to be late.” Daichi gently grabbed Koushi’s shoulders as he proceeded to shove him in their van. It had always been a habit of his, and Koushi seemed to like it, although he never stated it. The light pink dusting on his cheeks said all it needed to however, so Daichi continued the gesture for the many years they had known each other. 

An hour of driving went by fast with the help of music and car games courtesy of Sugawara. They pulled up to an old looking building, a pale reddish colour with paint peeling off in certain places. “LITTLE CROWS ORPHANAGE” was written faintly on a sign above the door. The whole building felt old in a good way, it felt like a homely place.

Daichi pushed open the door. He was greeted with a nice playroom, furnished better than the outside. It was clearly divided, with areas for playing and learning separately. An open area was left in the middle, occupied with a bunch of kids laughing and giggling. Some stuck together in tight-knit groups while others played with everyone around them. Daichi knew that Sugawara would take in every single kid here if it meant that none of the friends were separated, so he mentally prepared to be the voice of reason.  
There were a large variety of young children, but the one that caught Suga’s eye first was a child that appeared to have bright orange hair, reminding him of the sun. A massive grin was plastered on his face, and he was laughing loudly. The kid was passing a volleyball to another young boy, this one with black hair and blue eyes.  
Another pair of children, one with green hair and freckles, the other one with blonde hair and glasses, played with plastic dinosaurs. The blonde one seemed closed off, not particularly smiley but with a warm attitude towards the other boy he was playing with. The latter of the group was far warmer than his friend, giggling while waving his toy around in the air. 

“Hello! You must be looking to adopt, I assume!” A woman with gray hair walked up to them. “I’m Himari Maeda, and I’m the caretaker here at Little Crows Orphanage.”

“Yes, we are looking to adopt. I’m Daichi Sawamura and this is my partner Koushi Sugawara, and we’ll gladly take any of the children you have here.”

“That’s great! Maybe you can start by interacting with them, see which ones you like. There’s 15 in total, but these are the younger ones. I hope you make your choice soon!”

Koushi gently walked over to the orange kid that caught his eye earlier. “Hi, I’m Koushi Sugawara, what’s your name?” As he spoke, the child’s brown eyes stared at him with curiosity and wonder.  
“Shoyo Hinata.” He finally said, holding his volleyball tightly. He was quite small, whereas the child he was playing with was tall. Not as tall as the blonde boy playing dinosaurs, however.  
“Okay, Hinata-kun, how old are you?”  
He hesitated again, possibly because he hadn’t had much social interaction. Until the black-haired boy butted in.  
“Oi Sho-chan! Answer the question you idiot!”  
“Bakageyama! Don’t call me that! It’s mean!”  
“But you are an idiot!”  
Koushi silently watched as an argument unfolded, but then left them alone to talk with some other children.  
He met Tsukishima the dinosaur fanatic, along with Yamaguchi, his shy and anxious friend. It turned out that 6-year-old Tanaka and Nishinoya were the sources of 90% of the noise, and that Ennoshita, Narita and Kinoshita liked to draw pictures.  
“Especially bugs!” Ennoshita happily said. “I like them all - butterflies, worms, even cockroaches! Sho-chan and Kageyama-chan tell me that’s gross but it’s so cool!”  
“We do too…” Narita muttered but Ennoshita took no notice. Kinoshita shook his head as well.  
“I don’t think that’s gross, I think it’s quite interesting actually.” Koushi spoke gently. He knew that children loved getting praised, and that he loved praising children.  
“Intrastin?” What’s that?”  
Koushi laughed. “Interesting, not intrastin. It means you find something weird or ‘funny’, so it’s in-trest-ing.”  
“In...trest...ing.” The small boy sounded it out. “Interesting! Cool!”  
“Daichi, how are you finding the children?” Koushi asked his fiancé.  
“Uh…the orange one loves me a bit too much.” He winced as 'Sho-chan' climbed up his leg, almost as the boy had decided Koushi's fiancé was a tree. “Listen, kid, can you please stop,” he tried to shoo him away but ‘Sho-chan’ continued climbing up his leg, like Jack climbing up a Beanstalk.

Koushi knew just how to handle it. “Hey Sho-chan! Want to play volleyball with me? I used to play in high school, too.” He waved his hands to get his attention, and sure enough, he was excited to play volleyball and leave Suga’s poor fiancé alone. Daichi smiled tiredly and gave his silent thanks. Daichi loved kids, but he had been staying up late finalizing things for the move and was just a little too tired.  
“Kageyama-san knows how to play too! Can he come? Can he join? Oi Bakageyama, come here! We’re playing volleyball!”

‘This kid is full of energy, perfect for a household. I’ll never be bored!’ Koushi thought.

“Fine, Sho-chan. But everyone else here knows how to play too, so we can play all together with 12 people. An adult on each side, with 5 kids on one side, and Himari-senpai on another.”

“Bakageyama’s side! Bakageyama’s side!” Hinata immediately yelled out and ran towards him.  
Soon the crowd of children were gathered around Sugawara, excited to play volleyball. Nishinoya and Tanaka were shouting and jumping all over, excited laughs bouncing off of the walls. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima seemed to be excited but they were relatively quiet, preferring to express their happiness in big smiles.  
“The older kids make fun of us. They say that volleyball is a girl’s sport and we shouldn’t be playing it. But it’s the only sport Himari-senpai knows how to play, so it’s the only sport we know how to play.” Yamaguchi nearly whispered. “But I like it, and Tsukki likes it, and everyone here likes it so I don’t see anything wrong…”  
“I told you not to call me Tsukki in front of other people!” Tsukishima angrily whispered to Yamaguchi.  
“Sorry Tsukki...shima..” he spoke again.

An area had been cleared out near the social mat to be used as a ‘court’. The kids had fun dragging boxes and moving toys to make room for The temporary net was a line of thick books, all balanced as if they would fall at any second. At least they had a proper volleyball to use. Daichi and Suga were on different teams, however they didn’t mind that much.  
Tsukishima served first, not very strong but it made it over the net. Nishinoya received it, with Tanaka screaming congratulations at him.  
“You’re on different teams.” Tsukishima snorted.  
Suga’s team won the first ‘set’. The sets were 10 points each, and there were no outs. It was close, 8-10. Daichi was vowing revenge. Sugawara just smiled back. Koushi’s smile could be deadly, Daichi knew this. That’s what annoyed him even more.  
All of these kids were good at volleyball. Kageyama, or ‘Bakageyama’ as Hinata called him, had nice tosses. Nishinoya could receive well. He always exaggerated everything, and his friend Tanaka liked spiking and shouting words of encouragement. Tsukishima’s tallness was good for blocking, and Yamaguchi could perform an amateur jump serve. Hinata wasn’t very tall, but Suga could see that he certainly had spring in his step. Ennoshita, Narita and Kinoshita could all receive and spike nicely.

“All of these kids are great.” Daichi told Suga. “Who should we pick?”

Suga looked back at him with the largest grin on his face.  
Daichi was concerned about this, what was he thinking?

“All of them, of course!” He declared.  
Daichi was prepared for this, but the choice shocked him even more.  
Himari was staring at him with the most surprised look on her face.  
And Koushi Sugawara had declared he was going to adopt all the kids in Little Crows Orphanage.


	2. Preparation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koushi, with the help of his college friend Kuroo, has finished decorating all the rooms. Daichi comes and checks them out.

“W-what did you just say, Suga honey?” Daichi looked at him. Of course, he knew that his fiancé was going to say that, but he wasn’t fully prepared for him. To say that.  
“I want all the children!” Koushi stated again. He had a completely serious look on his face, though it was still soft as always.  
Himari looked at him with confusion and concern on her face. She grabbed a strand of dark brown hair and pushed it out of her face, still a bit dumbfounded.  
“I mean, if you would really like to, you could… but that would cost you a lot of paperwork.”  
Daichi pulled Koushi aside. “Listen, Suga, I know you are very adamant on having a big family, and I did say we could get 5 children. But 9? How are we going to take care of them all?”  
“Watch and see.” Sugawara pushed him aside, before eagerly turning to Himari. “So, where do we sign the paperwork?”  
Himari took a while to process this information. “Upstairs, in the left room. I’ll show you the way.”  
She began walking up the carpeted stairs. Soon they reached a brown door with a little glass window. Himari pushed the door open.  
Inside there were three chairs, two on one side and one on the other. Each one was a cushiony red material and felt rather soft. It was rather tame compared to the chaos that was present on the floor below, with simple decor and a modern feel. Laid out on the table were some papers, likely placed there in anticipation of their arrival. The three adults sat at the three chairs, before discussing arrangements and such. Taking care of so many children was going to be a long process to get sorted out, and the paperwork was definitely going to be a tiring endeavor, but the two new almost-parents didn’t care.  
Himari scribbled information onto one of the sheets, before handing it to the couple.  
“Well, you see, if you could just sign here that could be great.”  
They kept working at the paperwork for a while, before deciding to just take it home and worry about it later. They were going to take the children home the next week. Suga was practically bouncing up and down with excitement, and Daichi was grinning too.  
They drove off in their van, exiting their neighbouring town.  
“Kids, I have exciting news for you all!” Himari rushed downstairs, nearly tripping on a stray doll as she did.  
The kids stared at her with surprise wide in their eyes.  
“The couple that came in today wants to adopt all of you!”  
“Whaaaat?” Nishinoya started. “Really? But Salty-chan said that we wouldn’t be with our friends when we leave. He said that there was no chance of it happening at all!”  
“Well, Tsukishima-kun was wrong. Also Noya-kun, please don’t call him that. It’s rude to make fun of somebody.”  
“Sorry Himari-senpai. I won’t do it again! I’ll only do it when he bullies Sho-chan or anyone else.” Nishinoya was determined to protect his friend from the evil, sneaky, horrible Tsukishima, who he was certain was a mermaid. And the reason he was so salty is because the ocean was a salty place, just like Tsukishima. Himari-senpai had taught him about the ocean. She taught them lots of things. Afterall, they didn’t go to school and Himari-senpai was the only adult around, as the older kids didn’t like the younger ones and she had a Masters Degree in physics. She said she wanted to care for kids, rather than getting a well-paying job because kids had always been so innocent and kind, a break from the harsh world she grew up in.

Koushi rested his head on the seat front of the van as they drove past an orchard. He was sleeping, so Daichi made sure not to turn the radio up too loud. The dark blue vehicle steadily climbed up a hill with trees, bushes and birds all resting there. Houses began to become more frequent as they neared the busier parts of town, with cars joining them on the road. Suga jolted awake as they passed over a speedbump, and he looked up to see that they were in a local neighborhood. It was warm that night, so lots of people were about, the familiar buzz of a busy town sitting comfortably in Sugawara’s ears.  
“This is great, right Dai?” Sugawara asked, looking over at his fiance.  
Daichi smiled before beginning to respond.  
“It really is.” He grasped Suga’s hand nervously.  
“You’re driving, don’t do that. I don’t want you to crash before we get to set up their rooms.”  
Around 30 minutes later they pulled up into their driveway. Their white flowers sparkled, as the sun was setting.  
Tomorrow they were to go shopping for the kids, to buy bunk beds, desks, toys and more. Actually, Kuroo, who was Koushi’s college friend, had offered to give him a bunk. He had decided to put the kids into separate rooms because they wouldn’t stop fighting and arguing.  
“I swear, they’re never quiet anymore. I always hear Lev calling Yaku short, and Kenma’s given up on trying to stop their bickering. They love each other though, really.”  
Suga wondered if the kids would get along with each other or end up bickering like that. They seemed to be pretty happy with each other at the first meeting, though the friction may start to become apparent as the kids start to move in.  
“They’ll cool down when they get older, I bet.”  
Kuroo mumbled in agreement as he brought some more stuff in.  
“Do you think that this is a bad idea?” Suga said, putting a lamp on a nightstand.  
Kuroo glanced over before clicking his tongue.  
“Do you? Do you think that this is a bad idea?” He said, absentmindedly adjusting a bedsheet.  
“I don’t know to be honest. Dai seems okay with it, but it’s gonna be a lot to get used to.”  
“You work with children for a living, Kou. You’re gonna be fine, it’s just like having a class to teach.”  
“You’re right.”  
The room was close to finished now. Suga planned this out as the room for Yamaguchi and Tsukishima. He had a feeling the two of them would want to stay together. He’d kitted the room out with neutral decorations, with a few green accents and dinosaur figures lining pale shelves on the white walls.  
Suga stepped back, hands on his hips he admired his handiwork.  
“We did good, Daichi will love it.”  
\---

“Suga-r, I’m home!” Daichi said, slipping off his shoes as he walked into the house.  
“Dai!” Sugawara said as he embraced his fiance.  
Daichi leaned into the embrace as he placed kisses on Koushi’s cheeks.  
“I missed you.”  
“Same here.”  
Daichi looked in the direction of the stairs curiously.  
“How are the rooms?”  
“Perfect!” Suga squealed before he dragged his lover by the wrist to go see the rooms. Daichi looked tired, his usually excited face was a little bit dimmer, the skin below his eyes was dark, and he was slumped over. Suga wanted to make his soon-to-be-husband happier and he knew that this was the best way to do so.  
They made a beeline through the house, Suga with a massive grin plastered on his pale face.  
“Kuroo helped a lot, he’s actually super good at this!”  
Daichi hummed in approval.  
“Cool. Do we have a date for the kids moving in?”  
“Sometime next week, that much paperwork takes a lot of time to process.”  
Daichi smiled, before noticing that Sugawara was frowning.  
“You rethinking this?”  
“No, No, not at all. I’m just worried that we won’t be good parents.”  
Daichi sighed. They’d already had this conversation late a few nights ago, just after the paperwork had been handed in to be assessed.  
“We’ll be the best parents ever, don’t worry Koushi. We’ll give them great lives and education, imagine the possibilities!” Daichi said, clutching Suga’s hand tight.  
“Yeah. We’ll take them to the beach, and we’ll go on picnics…”  
“Come on, Dai. Let’s go see the rest of the rooms!” He grabbed his fiancé’s wrist once again, but he didn’t seem to mind.  
Koushi pushed the door open to Noya and Tanaka’s room. It wasn't decorated too much to allow the kids to have their own preferences, but there were a few figurines and toys for the two to play with. A few volleyball posters adorned the walls, with famous players from the V. league featured. Daichi smiled happily and looked over to Suga, who seemed a bit more cheery now that he was reassured.  
Suga took him to the room for three next, which was similar to the other room but with a greener color palette and some art supplies on a desk in the corner. A large pot plant was in one of the corners, sporting large ridged leaves and a long branch through the middle. These kids, in particular, seemed responsible enough to have something fragile in their room. Three white beds lined one of the walls, along with pictures placed on top. A large white closet resided on the parallel wall to store clothes. Suga happily looked over at his fiancé as he smiled and looked back. 

“This is going to be great.” Suga spoke as he rested his arm on Daichi’s shoulder.  
Yeah, it really is.” He said that whilst looking out of the window at the sun, trying to hide behind two tall pines, slowly reaching towards them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!!  
> Also, we've worked out an update schedule - Friday + Saturday + Sunday, or Thursday-Saturday depending on your timezone.


	3. Adoption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kids get adopted and survive their first night! :)

Sun was streaming through the half-open curtains of the master bedroom. Different shades of beige and gold light shone and illuminated the room. Suga shot out of bed with a huge grin on his face and rushed to wake his fiance, who groaned in response to the sudden jostle of the bed.  
“Sugar…” He complained half-hazardly, before pulling the duvet over himself again.  
“Daichi! We’re picking up the kids today!” Sugawara trilled, leaping out of bed before running to get dressed. Daichi shot up at these words, the sudden realization pouring over him as he followed his lover to their closet.  
“We’re picking up the kids today!” Daichi repeated, delight woven through every syllable.  
“It’s really happening!” Suga said, carelessly tripping over a rug as he ran to make coffee.  
Daichi quickly followed, hopping out of the door while pulling his clothes on. He had a day off work today as they were picking up the kids. His supervisor was very understanding and wished him luck, a pat on the back as Daichi left the workplace.  
Sugawara powered through the house, adjusting figures and fluffing up pillows. He’d made it to Hinata and Kageyama’s room when he found Daichi leaning against the doorframe, a slight smile on his face. He began to walk forward, dragging Suga away from one of the beds by hugging them. He lifted Suga around and spun him, laughing and Suga squirmed in the direction of the bed.  
“Daiiii…” He said, before melting into the hug.  
“The house is already perfect Koushi, really. There is nothing to worry about.”  
Suga turned his head and nuzzled into his fiance’s shoulder, before hugging him back.  
“We’d better get going.”  
Suga nodded, before peeling off Daichi and heading to grab some breakfast.  
Daichi followed, sitting on one of the bench seats on their kitchen island. 

After breakfast, the two of them checked the rest of the house for anything that might be out of order before getting into their van. It had originally been a struggle to find a vehicle that would fit all of the kids, but they’d found something eventually. It was a navy blue van with white details and just enough seats to fit them all. It had been used, but Daichi and Suga thoroughly cleaned it so it was good as new.  
Getting the van had been a big occasion for the two of them as it was a big part of having a family. It always got Suga giddy with excitement, and he couldn’t help but grin at the fact that in an hour this van would be full with kids. 

\---

The sky seemed lighter as the van headed towards Little Crow’s Orphanage. The sun was bright and there was a lack of clouds in the sky. The air was nice and warm, a window open as Koushi peeked out of one of the front windows. Daichi snuck a quick peek at his fiance, admiring his dimples and the little mole below his eye, before keeping his eyes on the road again. Suga would kill him if he found out that Daichi didn’t have his eyes on the road for even a second during this journey. Brick walls greeted them as they pulled up to the carpark. Suga had a massive grin on his face as he stepped out of their van, and Daichi was smiling as well.  
Daichi pushed open the front doors and held them open for Suga, who thanked him with a peck on the cheek.  
The couple entered the main room to see a colourful scene.  
Nishinoya and Tanaka were playing some sort of variant of tag which involved far more violence than necessary, Hinata and Kageyama were having a jumping competition, and everyone was running around while three artists sat quietly in the corner. Sugawara sighed fondly, a slight smile on his face as he continued inside the building. Himari was probably upstairs, as there was no trace she was here and it seemed messier than usual.  
In her defense, they had come an hour earlier than the scheduled time, but they were so excited they woke up extra early and got ready faster than usual. Sugawara nearly took a step forward before realizing he was going to step on a spiky plastic dinosaur. Realizing that, he put his foot back immediately. The kid known as Tsukishima rushed forward, scowling at Sugawara before scurrying off while cradling the toy. Yamaguchi followed, shooting an apologetic look at Suga.  
“Sorry about Tsukki, he really loves that toy. I think his older brother gave it to him.” Sugawara looked over at the boy sympathetically. Yamaguchi hurried over to Tsukishima, laughing and giggling with him as they played.  
Suga and Daichi drifted around the group a little bit, before a tired-looking Himari entered.  
“Sorry!” She stammered, fussing over some of the mess.  
“There was a bit of work with one of the older kids,I had to get that done.”  
“No problem!” Daichi said. “We were actually a bit early anyway.”  
“Anyway, all the paperwork is done so you’re free to take the kids when you’re ready.” Himari said, before continuing to clean up the mess.  
Sugawara approached the group of kids and explained that they would be getting adopted. Their reactions understandably varied.  
Hinata and Kageyama grinned and hugged Suga. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi smiled and hugged each other. Tanaka yelled his thanks and joined the hug. Nishinoya, Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita were a bit more reserved, but they joined the hug later on.  
Suga was grinning ear-to-ear before letting go of the kids so they could grab their things.  
They all said a tearful but happy goodbye to Himari before jumping inside the van, off to see their new home.

\---

The ride home was mostly quiet, though some of the kids engaged in conversation, a round of carpool Karaoke breaking out halfway to the house.  
Sugawara engaged in some light conversation with some of the children seated close to him. They seemed lovely, even if they were a little reserved. Suga learnt that Nishinoya really liked talking about the weather, especially thunder, and that Asahi liked fashion. Hinata idolized a volleyball player called “the Little Giant”, while Kageyama had a real passion for setting in volleyball. Suga didn’t bother finding out why each of them were in foster care. It had been present on their paperwork but Suga didn’t want to read it. He decided that the kids should tell him in due time, on their own accord. It would be an invasion of privacy otherwise. Nobody had a history of delinquency anyway.  
Eventually, they reached the house. Daichi and Suga helped some of the smaller kids out of the van. Audible gasps were heard from the kids, who giggled and laughed as they made way into the house. Each kid carried their own bag which was pretty light, and Daichi showed them into their own rooms. An announcement for a family meeting was given after the kids had some time to unpack and get set up. 

“Alright, welcome!” Daichi started off, smiling at the group.  
A collective cheer erupted, Tanaka pumping his fist into the air and Hinata yelling in excitement.  
The two new parents showed the kids around the house, demonstrating how to use the knobs on the shower and showing where the toothbrushes were. The kids seemed to be fascinated with everything, always jumping about whenever a new thing was introduced to them. Even the most mundane of tools had them interested.  
After a while everyone roughly knew their way around, and they could just ask questions if they were lost. Some of the more reserved kids were warming up to Daichi and Suga, and the others were happy as ever.  
Hinata and Kageyama sprinted outside to play, and the rest of the kids split off to their rooms till dinner. There was no fuss with the placements, everyone seemed comfortable where they were.  
Sugawara had been planning this dinner for a long time. He’d bought good ingredients and stared the recipe down for far too long. This had to be perfect.  
At 6:30 exactly, the parents called everyone to dinner.  
They came shortly afterward, slightly tired from playing but still happy.  
The food set out in front of them was amazing, like something from a movie. Roast pork was laid out, a pot of gravy next to it. Herbs surrounded the mean, adorning it beautifully. Daichi was impressed. Sure he’d helped, but most of this was Suga’s handiwork. Daichi could never be this delicate even if he tried.  
Dinner went smoothly. Again, there was a little bit of a difference in how each of the children handled themselves, some going in and shoveling food into their mouths, while others stayed back. It was interesting to observe, that’s for sure. The couple couldn’t wait to know these kids better. 

\---

“Alright, time for showers!” Suga said, clapping his hands. At this point, everyone was finished and engaging in light conversation.  
Tsukishima volunteered to go first, politely thanking Suga and carrying himself up the stairs.  
Around five minutes later he emerged, still pushing his glasses up onto the top of his nose.  
For some reason he suggested that Kageyama should go next. Nobody knew why until an ear-bleeding shriek was heard from the shower. Tsukishima burst out in laughter from the couch, to which everyone looked first to him in confusion, and then to Suga in wonder. Sugawara then quickly ran to the bathroom to see what was wrong, and found Kageyama wrapped in a towel, fiddling with the knobs. His hair was soaking and steam was rising from the shower stall.  
“Kageyama..?” Sugawara gently asked, edging into the room. Suga had decided against using given names just yet.  
“The water was super hot!” Kageyama said, turning towards Suga.  
“Riiiight…” Sugawara , now realising what Tsukishima had done. A sneaky prank, that’s for sure.  
Suga headed downstairs again after helping Kageyama with the knobs, and reminding him how to change it again if Tsukishima tried anything.  
Daichi looked over to Suga with curiosity.  
“What happened?” Daichi asked.  
“Oh, nothing much really. It was just a harmless prank, that’s all.”  
Daichi’s features softened at this conformation. He and Koushi pulled that stuff all the time back in high school. Pranks, silly shenanigans. You name it, they did it.  
Sugawara huffed as he sat down, before asking Hinata to go in after Kageyama.  
Slowly they all filtered in and out of the shower, nobody trying anything out of the ordinary. Tsukishima was told to refrain from doing that, though the warning was quite passive.  
“Alright guys, time for bed.” Daichi said to them after they played for a while, Kageyama still refused to talk to Tsukishima for what he had done before.  
“Hey Sho-chan, let’s go sleep.” He had said right when afterwards, as the ginger-haired kid had been too fond of the game they were playing to have noticed anything. Hinata was currently fiddling with the tokens that came with the game, taking his token off the board and dragging it through the air, making dramatic sound effects when he moved it.  
Kageyama enjoyed board games like this, but sometimes it was boring to him. He was also quite disappointed at the fact that they couldn’t go out and play volleyball whenever they wanted to, it was only when it wasn’t dark, wasn’t rainy, wasn’t stupidly cold or late. Daichi had also forbidden messier sports to be played inside the house, much to the disappointment of the children. They had received a hard ‘no’ from Koushi when they had asked after their showers, so Kageyama suggested they played a board game instead, to which Hinata had reluctantly replied yes. He still managed to knock over a few of the tokens though, which according to Kageyama was ‘Super normal’ and ‘Totally fine’. He also added a ‘Sorry if he loses anything’ to the end, but didn’t let his friend hear. Hinata was sensitive about things he didn’t do right, especially since he was clumsy. He used to live with a super strict family that expected so much from him, even though he was still so young. Kageyama didn’t know much about the sort of expectations parents were supposed to have for their kids, but this seemed wrong.  
The game ended with a close score, Tsukishima ended up winning, whereas Daichi had gotten crushed. He shepherded the kids upstairs and told them to shout if they needed help with getting changed. Himari had already given them some spare clothes, but they had gone ahead and bought extra, just to be sure. They were all pretty generic, but nothing that they wouldn’t like. Soon their items and rooms would blossom to reflect their personalities.  
Thankfully, nobody called and Daichi was sure he could leave the kids alone. After all - they already did all the curtains, cleaned the rooms and all that was left for was the children to settle down and sleep. Small noises could be heard from inside the rooms, probably the kids conversing and mucking about. They had a short while to get settled in, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if the kids stayed up late tonight. 

Hours later everybody had gone to sleep, including the parents. A few rustles and noises startled Daichi awake, causing him to shoot up in bed. Sugawara was still asleep, unconsciously reaching out to Daichi when he sat up. Daichi put his focus back on the noise, as he was still unsure of what it was. He looked over to Koushi, maybe it was his snoring? No, Suga didn’t snore.  
“I’ll worry about it tomorrow.” Daichi thought as he turned the beige lamp next to their bed off, stifling a yawn as to not wake his fiancé up. Daichi was about to go to sleep when he heard another noise and realised that someone was quietly knocking on the door.  
‘Is it one of the kids?’ He wondered. ‘But then why are they here now?’  
Daichi was confused, none of the notes mentioned troubled sleeping from any of the kids. He checked the time on his phone. 2:20AM was displayed on the screen, in blocky rectangular letters.  
Cautiously, Daichi picked the cover off himself and started tip-toeing to the door. He was surprised that whoever it was hadn’t just barged in, considering that they were just children, and typically that’s what kids did if they had a nightmare or something.  
Daichi opened the door and his eyes widened. Even if he’d been a little nervous at the beginning of their first day together, this kid was the last person Daichi would’ve thought to have a nightmare.  
“Nishinoya?”


	4. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to get hit with a boatload of aNGST-  
> TW for: Implied Child neglect and/or abuse depending on how you wanna see it. A summary of this chapter will be at the bottom for those who want a summary ^^

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! We're sorry for the late update, especially considering the cliffhanger we left you guys on last chapter. I hope you guys enjoy this! We'll get better at posting on time next chapter :D

Wide golden eyes locked with Daichi’s as he looked down. It was dark in the hallway Noya was standing in, only illuminated by a night light hooked to a plug on the wall. The light was slightly blue, just above the floor. 

“I’m sorry-” Nishinoya began nervously, before being cut off by Daichi, who had bent down to be at eye-level with him. 

“There isn’t any need to be sorry, Yuu. Can I call you that?” Daichi looked at Nishinoya with a kind smile. 

“Yeah, you can.”  _ Yuu _ replied, twiddling his fingers together. His head was tilted to the floor, and he was too scared to make eye contact. 

Daichi invited Nishinoya inside, and saw Suga half-awake on the bed, his grey hair tinted gold by their tableside lamp. Suga must’ve turned it on again after being woken up. 

“Dai..?” Sugawara groaned, before noticing the tiny figure holding his fiance’s hand. “Nishinoya?” 

“I think he had a nightmare, Kou.” Daichi said. Koushi agreed with a nod of his head, moving over to make room. The quiet shuffles were all that could be heard before Nishinoya piped up.

“I didn’t mean to, I swear!” Noya yelled, his hands balled into fists. “I try to stop them, but they don’t stop!” 

“ _ Shhhhhh _ , Noya, it’s  _ okay. _ ” Sugawara said, allowing the kid to crawl into his arms. 

“They’re just bad dreams, Yuu, and they can’t get you when you’re with us.” Daichi coddled Noya, brushing a piece of hair out of his eye. He hoped that the use of Noya’s given name would make him feel at home. That’s where he now was, after all.

“Now let’s go to sleep, you’re safe here.” 

\---

Hinata and Kageyama woke up early, around 6:30. They began the day by talking about random things, before deciding to go off and watch some TV. At that point, most of their siblings were awake, watching an anime about kids with superpowers who went to a hero school. 

Tanaka had taken a liking to the boy with blond spiky hair, cheering each time the teen yelled. 

Yamaguchi preferred the main protagonist, while Tsukishima appeared to prefer the kid’s homeroom teacher. 

Ennoshita tried to cover up each curse word with a yell, attempting to get the others to pick something with less violence and bad language. Nobody listened. 

Hinata and Kageyama got into the action, cheering for which character they wanted to win a certain battle. 

Today was particularly rainy, so they were forced to stay inside, which none of the kids were happy about. They didn’t seem fazed by the dark clouds or the buckets of water falling from the sky. The slick pavements or the muddy ground didn’t bother them either. 

Despite a lot of begging and grovelling, Daichi refused to let them play outside. 

“It’s your second day here, I don’t want you to catch a cold and be sick and not get to play outside when it  _ is  _ sunny. You’ll be stuck in bed and have to watch the other kids have fun when you’re bored.”

The kids seemed to agree with this, mumbling affirmatives before going off to make breakfast. Despite their ages, they were quite independent as mature. 

A breakfast of assorted cereals began, random topics of conversation coming and going. “Hey Tsukki, want to play dinosaurs with me?” Yamaguchi smiled at his friend and waved a purple t-rex at him.

“Yeah, okay.” Tsukishima slowly walked towards his friend and sat down with him. They began to play with the toys together, making dramatic sound effects while laughing. 

It was the weekend, so no work had been assigned from school for the kids to complete. Sugawara and Daichi decided that today would be the day to know some of the kids better. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were right in front of them , so why not start a conversation?    
  
“What’re you guys playing?” Suga asked, getting on his knees.    
“We’re playing dinosaurs! They’re fighting to the  _ death _ !” Yamaguchi giggled, before having his wad of dinosaur-shaped plastic clash with Tsukishima’s again. 

Daichi laughed, before picking up a dinosaur left on the carpet and asking to join. Before either of the parents knew it, they were roped into a crazy wrestling match between plastic dinosaurs. 

Yamaguchi and Tsukishima eventually decided to play something else. 

“Let’s play a board game, Tsukki! Let’s go draw, Tsukki!” Yamaguchi grabbed his tall, blonde friend by the wrist and dragged him to go play more games, leaving their parents to clean up their mess. 

“Yamaguchi, we have to clean up-” Tsukishima began. Tsukishima used to clean up for some of the other orphans, and even with how young he was he knew that Daichi and Suga wouldn’t like to clean up. 

“Right, cleaning!” Yamaguchi echoed, going to pick the toys up. He knew that they should be cleaning up, he just got distracted  _ super _ easily. He’d be doing one thing, and then latch onto another. He didn’t do it that much with  _ dinosaurs _ though, that was Yamaguchi and Tsukishima’s special thing. 

After they cleaned up (it didn’t take long) they headed off to draw with Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita. 

“That was fun.” Sugawara said, leaning back on his hands. “Who’re we gonna talk to next?”    
“Maybe Kageyama and Hinata, they seem kind of bored.” 

Sugawara was imagining a lovely family scene in his mind. This was the end goal of his escapade to know the kids better. He’d come to terms with the fact that it would take effort to get to know these kids and there would be speed bumps along the way, but at the end of all this, they could sit around a dinner table, laughing and smiling as if they’d been together all of their lives. It was a dream of Suga’s. 

Sugawara and Daichi headed over to where the two kids were laying about doing not much. 

“Hey, kids!” Daichi said, sitting down on one of the couch arms in the living room.    
“Hi Dads,” Kageyama said unenthusiastically. 

“Do you guys have anything to do?” Sugawara asked, moving towards Hinata. 

“Not really. I mostly did volleyball or chores at home. Also, we weren’t allowed to run around that much at my house.” Hinata said. 

“He’s too shy to ask,” Kageyama said, nudging his head in Hinata’s direction.    
“Not true Bakageyama!” Hinata said, blushing at the remark. 

Suga and Daichi laughed before Sugawara began to speak.

“What if I bought some friends over? Wouldn’t that be nice to do?”

Daichi raised his eyebrows at Suga, before nodding.

“I think Asahi is off work today, Kiyoko too.” 

“I’ll go call them,” Sugawara said, before bouncing over to the landline phone. 

“Who are those people?” Kageyama asked, tilting his head.

“They’re friends of ours.” 

Hinata smiled at this, before jumping over to Kageyama. 

“Y’hear that, Yamayama?! That means that Dad’s friends are coming over!” Hinata said, waving his hands in excitement. 

Hinata’s smile faltered. “Wait…” Kageyama knew what Hinata was about to say. He knew the ginger well. “What if I mess up?” The tiny boy looked up at his parents, clutching his shirt tightly.

“Mess up?” Daichi asked, confused, Hinata hadn’t really been concerned about making mistakes around himself and Koushi, so he was confused why his child was asking now. 

“Messing up means no food, messing up means that I have to go in the closet, right?” Hinata said. 

Daichi sighed, kneeling down in front of the small child.

“We’ll never  _ ever _ do anything like that to you, okay? Our friends won't either.” 

Hinata softened at this, letting go the fistful of fabric he had from his now tear-stained shit go. 

Sugawara finished his call from the next room, before entering to a tearful Hinata holding onto Kageyama and Daichi. It would’ve been cute without the crying, them all sitting together embracing. 

“Oh.” Was all Sugawara could manage before running over to the group. He dropped to his knees before cupping Hinata’s cheek, wiping stray tears with his thumb. “You poor, poor angel…” Suga cooed, pulling the small boy into a soft hug. Eventually, the sobs turned to sniffles and Hinata calmed down. Daichi watched in wonder, Suga was so good with people, especially children. It was a trait that Daichi admired. 

Everyone sat and talked about random things before the familiar sound of a doorbell ringing alerted them all to their guest’s arrival. 

“Ah, they’re here!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Noya is at the master bedroom door after a nightmare, he is comforted and everyone sleeps happily. The next day Daichi and Suga decide to invite people over, but Hinata get's scared because of his past. He knows that Daichi and Sugawara won't hurt him, but he can't say the same for these 'mystery adults'. He says a bit about his past, mostly about how he would be neglected and hurt if he messed up due to the strict nature of his parents. Daichi assures him that nobody will hurt him and the house is peaceful once again.


	5. The Visit Pt. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Angst Train is coming :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry if your favourite character isn't in the spotlight yet, everyone will have their time ^^

Sugawara rushed over to the front door of their house, whilst the others anxiously stared at him, wondering what the mysterious ‘Asahi’ and ‘Kiyoko’ looked like and who they even were.

“Alright kids, make sure to be on your best behaviour!” Daichi reminded them all.

He looked back to see Nishinoya hiding in the corner, probably startled by the sudden knock on the door. He walked over to him. 

“Come on Noya, I promise you that me and Koushi’s friends will treat you fine, okay?” Daichi knew that often kids in orphanages had not-so-savoury pasts, but it was still disheartening to see quite a few kids set off by such a commonplace thing, at least for them it was. 

“You sure?” Nishinoya quietly spoke back. He was hiding in a corner of the living room, slightly curled in on himself. 

“Yeah, I’m totally sure! Now come with me, maybe you can play with your friend Tanaka for a bit.”

“Asahi! Nice to see you!” Sugawara cheerily welcomed his friend into his new house.

“How’s it going, Suga?” He took off his shoes and entered the house. It was pretty obvious that Asahi had changed since high-school. He wore his hair down now most of the time and favoured glasses over contacts. He was still pretty tall, maintaining the goatee he’d had since he was eighteen. 

“Great! What about you?”

“I’m doing well!” Asahi replied, before stepping aside to let Kiyoko in. 

The young woman had dark hair which had been cut at the middle of her neck.

“Good morning, Sugawara.” She greeted politely. 

They shared a quick embrace before Suga led them into the playroom, where all of the kids were playing around.

“Wow.” Asahi said, taken aback by the children. He knew that there was nine of them, but only now was it really sinking in. 

As soon as the group of adults entered the playroom, everyone froze. Nine pairs of eyes stared back at the adults, with a mix of nervousness and curiosity. 

Tanaka got up first, rushing up to Asahi and latching onto him.

“Hiiiiii!!” He yelled, looking up at the brunette, who was flustered at the sudden embrace. 

Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita all got up afterwards, saying hello politely. 

“Hey there.” Kiyoko said, bending down to eye level. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi weren’t sure who to greet first, so they stayed behind but still waved. Kageyama stayed back, waiting for Hinata. Nishinoya was next to the ginger, still a bit unsure about the two new adults in the doorway. 

“It’ll be okay, Tanaka is over with them, see?” 

Nishinoya glanced over, to where Tanaka was playing with Asahi’s glasses while the others were fawning over Kiyoko’s dress. 

“Woah… So pretty!” Kinoshita marvelled, patting the fabric on Kiyoko’s knee. 

The ravenette laughed, ruffling the little child’s hair.

“H-hi,” Noya said nervously, he hated talking to new people, especially after what happened with his original parents.

Of course, Nishinoya had kept quiet about what happened in his childhood. Previously, whenever he bought up the topic of what was  __ done to him, people looked uncomfortable, pity burning in their eyes. Nishinoya was a bit young to tell when he was being patronized, but he knew he hated that look. It was the look his teachers gave a hurt animal when they came across one on class hikes. That look wouldn’t be nice on Sugawara’s face, so Nishinoya didn’t say anything. 

Asahi kneeled down to eye-level with Noya, noticing the younger’s discomfort. “Hello there. What’s your name?” He asked kindly, gently prying his glasses out of Tanaka’s hands to get a better look at the kid in front of him. To say that he had a unique look would be an… understatement. Dark hair hastily gelled-up with a blonde part falling over his forehead, large upturned eyes with skinny pupils. 

“Nishinoya Yuu.” Nishinoya responded, still very nervous about the gigantic man in front of him. 

“Nishinoya? That’s a nice name. Do you want to play a game?”

Tanaka overhead and immediately shouted out.

“Yeah let’s play!” Tanaka shouted, energetic as ever, as he tried and failed to tackle Asahi. Despite the obvious fail, Asahi seemingly fell down to the ground. 

“You got me!” Asahi said, struggling to hold his laughter as he lay limp on the floor. Tanaka clumsily climbed on top of Asahi’s body. “Haha! Bow down to me!” Tanaka shouted, looking down on Asahi with his fists punching the air. Nishinoya eventually joined in, with a rare smile etched across his face. 

Daichi laughed at the scene of his helpless friend with elementary schoolers on top of him. It wasn’t long before the two boys launched into tickling, laughing as they chased after Asahi, who was clambering away from them. 

“Be  _ nice, _ guys…” Daichi said, stifling laughter. 

Nishinoya got off Asahi, apologising before heading over to Kiyoko, who was telling embarrassing stories about Daichi and Sugawara’s high-school years. 

“And then I found them in the  _ locker room- _ ”

“Okay, I think that’s enough storytime,” Daichi said, quickly covering up. Kiyoko loved to embarrass the two, though sometimes the stories that she told weren’t exactly that nice. 

“Yeah, I agree.” Sugawara said, approaching the group. Tanaka and Asahi wondered what was going on so they headed over as well.

“Anyway, is Yachi still caught up at work?” Daichi asked, looking over to Kiyoko. 

The woman shook off some kids still clinging to her and nodded.

“Yeah, I got a day off today but then I go back to work. We’re still paying off some loans for the house but we’re close.”

“That’s great!” Sugawara said, tidying up some mess from earlier.

“Did she say when she would be off work?”

“She’s off work now, just picking up some cookie mix for the kids.” 

“You guys didn’t have to-” 

“It’s alright, don’t worry,” Kiyoko said, waving off the subject. You guys helped a lot with money, so we may as well help out too.” She smiled, looking over to Daichi and Suga, who were still hesitant to accept their gift. 

“If you insist, thanks a lot.” Sugawara said gratefully. 

“She should be here soon, I think. Why not have the kids introduce themselves?” 

Sugawara nodded in agreement before turning to the kids. 

“When it’s your turn, say your name and something you like,” Suga said cheerfully. 

The kids seemed excited to try this out.

“I’m Tanaka and I like animals!” Tanaka eagerly shouted, fist-pumping the air.

“I’m Hinata and I love volleyball!” Hinata said, grinning from ear to ear. 

“HEY! _I_ wanted to pick volleyball!” Kageyama pouted. 

“Ah-You can both pick volleyball, we all like volleyball, right?” Sugawara stammered. He waved his hands around desperately, trying to quell a budding argument. 

“O-kay.” Kageyama said, before turning to Asahi and Kiyoko. 

“I’m Kageyama, and I like Volleyball! It’s  _ so _ cool!” He half-yelled, smiling just like Hinata.

“Yeah! What Yamayama said!” 

Sugawara had to stifle a yell because  _ oh my god _ they are so cute. 

“I’m Ennoshita and I like drawing and bugs!” 

“I’m Kinoshita, trees are great!” Kinoshita said quietly. He and Ennoshita had tamer personalities than the others, but it seemed to balance out.

“I’m uh- Narita and I like... rainbows!” He blurted, though it sounded like he just said the first thing that came to his mind. 

“Rainbows are so cool Narita!” Tanaka yelled, looking at Narita as if he’d just announced he was royalty. 

“Inside voices, Tanaka.” Sugawara warned softly.

“Sorry!” 

“My name is Tsukishima, I think dinosaurs are cool,” Tsukishima said, folding his arms. Asahi took notice of how tall Tsukishima was for his age. He would probably grow up to be taller than him someday. 

“I’m Yamaguchi, and I agree with Tsukki...shima.” Yamaguchi caught himself when he noticed the rampant blush dusting his friend’s cheek, as well as the slight frown on his face. 

“I’m Nishinoya, and thunder is really cool!” Noya said, raising his voice slightly. Suga didn’t say anything, he was glad that the kid was coming out of his shell.

The conversation was ended with a ring of the doorbell. 

“I’ll get it!” Tanaka said, getting up and running towards the front door. 

He was greeted by a woman on the shorter side, with blonde hair swept up in a ponytail on the side. She had a small pointed nose with rounded eyes. 

“Hey there!” She said, glancing at Tanaka. 

“Oh, hi Yachi!” Sugawara appeared at the door. “I see you’ve already met Tanaka.” 

“Oh, yes I have!” Yachi said. She was holding a grocery bag which probably had stuff to make cookies in it. 

“Everyone else is here, come meet them.” 

They engaged in conversation about Yachi’s work as well as the kids, before the two of them made it into the playroom. 

“OhmygodIlovethem.” Yachi blurted out, before going to talk to them. 

Kiyoko laughed, and everyone joined in. Yachi had always liked kids, and it was nice to see her playing with them. 

“Do you guys wanna go make cookies?” Yachi asked, grinning. 

A choir of excited gasps showed that yeah, they  _ did _ want to go make cookies.

“Let’s go then!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of angst, especially considering the chapter summary. Also, school has been hectic so there has been a lot of work to do. We are trying to get updates out on time, but please be lenient by a day or two. Thanks!


	6. The Visit pt 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST 
> 
> Yep! We're finally getting to the proper angst (kinda) Also this chapter as well as the next chapter mark the end of our current Noya arc! Your favourite characters will get time to shine as well as characters from other schools!

Tsukishima had always enjoyed sweet things, such as cookies and cakes. He wasn’t allowed to have them much when he was with his old mother, but his older brother sometimes snuck him a cookie whenever he could. Some of his happiest memories were of eating cake with his brother while their mother was asleep on their couch. Strawberry shortcake was his favourite.  _ Oh,  _ what Tsukishima wouldn’t give to each strawberry shortcake with his brother again or even cookies. He decided that that was what he was doing now. Making cookies with his  _ new _ brothers.

“Do they have chocolate chips in them?” Hinata asked, trailing behind Yachi into the Kitchen.

“We can add some if you would like, I’m sure your parents would store them somewhere in the kitchen.”

“Yeah!” Kageyama echoed, eyes sparkling with excitement. 

A train of children came into the kitchen, all ready to help. It would be quite hard to manage nine kids baking. Yachi pulled out the cookie mix that she had bought for the kids. It was for vanilla cookies, something that most of the kids should find tasty. 

Most of the kids were tall enough to reach the bench they were cooking on, but Noya and Hinata had to share a stool they pulled out from the cupboard. 

“Woahhhhhh…” A chorus of voices could be heard as Yachi emptied the bag of mix into a bowl on the bench. 

“That’s so cool!” Yamaguchi said, eagerly.

“Hey Tsukishima? Can you grab the milk?” Yachi asked. He guessed that the tall blonde would be the least likely to drop or still the milk.

He silently obliged, bringing the jug over wordlessly. 

Yachi thanked him, smiling gratefully. Though he was quiet about it, it was clear that Tsukishima was enjoying himself. That is if the slight smile on his face said anything. Yachi had known people like that in her past, people that tried to look unfazed by the world. She’d never understood them. 

Why hide excitement if it was such a lovely emotion? She accepted it as the simple reality of the world and continued measuring out chocolate chips for their recipe. 

“You need more than  _ that! _ ” Tanaka said, staring at the measuring cup. “It’s gotta be sweet and yummy!” 

“It won’t be yummy if you add too much chocolate, Tanaka.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.” Tanaka said, curiosity burning in his eyes. 

“Yeah! It gets all chunky and gross, I tried that one time.” Kageyama said. He could remember the mixture being kind of sloppy, not sticking together properly. Even though it didn’t taste that great, Kageyama still felt fond of the memory. He was hanging out with one of the older kids, Miwa. He didn’t like the other older kids. They would always tease him for being too ‘angry’ to play with them. But not Miwa, she was sweet, and kind. It was hard to adjust when Miwa got adopted. But looking around the room, Kageyama hoped that Miwa got a family that was as good as his. 

“Alright, now we have to stir!” Yachi said, clapping her hands. “You guys can take turns, okay?” She passed the spoon to Tsukishima, who was still next to her from passing the milk over earlier. 

Tsukishima grabbed the spoon and started to mix. “Can you do it a bit faster please?” Yachi asked. Her voice was soft and of a higher pitch, and she managed to speak in such a way that all of her words sounded kind. 

“Okay.” Tsukishima asked, using the smallest amount of words possible. He didn’t appear to like speaking, or at least he didn’t like to use big sentences full of words. He began to swirl his arm around faster, careful to not spill any batter. 

Yamaguchi was next, he was a bit clumsier and weaker than Tsukishima. Sometimes he would just stop and try as hard as he can to move the spoon for a few more turns, then stop again. Next was Kageyama, who was a little  _ too _ aggressive. He was trying his best, but splatters of spilled batter on the counter showed that his best was a little too much. 

Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita all put their hands on the spoon together, folding the mixture together carefully. A bit of the mixture dripped off of the edges from pushing the cookie dough too far to the edge. 

Hinata grabbed Nishinoya’s hands and put them on the spoon’s handle. Together they mixed the dough, leaning back and forth on their stools to move the spoon.    
“That’s it!” Hinata said as the two of them created a rhythm. 

Tanaka went last, and Yachi was surprised he didn’t break the spoon in half. He was swirling the mixture around, cackling while he did it. It was lucky that the dough wasn’t runny anymore or it would’ve splattered everywhere. 

“A-----lright, that’s enough mixing, I think,” Yachi said, prying the spoon from Tanaka’s dirty hands. 

“Alright guys, now we’ve gotta roll up the dough into circles, ‘kay?” Yachi told the kids, getting a tray out of the bottom cupboard. After placing it on the kitchen bench and prepping it with baking paper, she grabbed a piece of the mixed dough and rolled it in her hands until it became ball-like. She then placed it neatly on the bench before squishing it with a fork, the lined pattern stamping onto the top of them. “Just like that! Do you want me to hand each of you a piece now?” 

“Yes please!” A chorus of excited children shouted, almost sweeping Yachi off her feet. These kids sure were loud. Each of them were given pieces of dough and they began to roll them up, placing them on the tray. Yachi adjusted the balls a little bit, placing them tidily before pressing down on them. 

Eventually, they were all done and placed in the oven, kids looking at the contents eagerly. 

“They are gonna taste so good when they’re done!” Hinata said, grinning. Everyone else agreed, before heading back to Sugawara and Daichi. Currently, the two of them were talking with Kiyoko and Asahi about the kids. 

“-especially worried about the shortest one, he shys away from most of us-” Daichi cut off when he saw the kids in the doorway. 

“How’d the cookies go?” He asked, looking curiously. 

“The dough turned out well, they’re just baking now.” Yachi said. 

“Oh, that’s amazing!” Asahi said. He eyed Nishinoya who was the closest kid to him, and raised his hand to give a high-five.

Asahi regretted that  _ immediately. _ Nishinoya’s eyes widened, and he stepped away, yelling for Asahi to not touch him. Tears spilled from his eyes as he sprinted out of the room, slamming a door before hiding in his room. 

Asahi hadn’t dropped his hand, it was hanging in the air while he looked at the space Nishinoya had been. Suga’s hands were clenched into fists, Daichi rubbing circles onto the tops of his hands to calm him down. Most of the kids stared at their feet, unsure of how to respond to the conversation. Tanaka had his eyes on Asahi, though it was unclear whether it was a stare of shock or of anger. 

“This is bad…” Tanaka said simply. 

- **flashback** \- 

_ “Alright guys, meet your new friend!”  _

_ Tanaka stopped playing with figurines on the playmat and went to go see the kid Himari was introducing them to. It had been a while since a new kid had come to the orphanage, the last one being that lanky blonde kid. He’d arrived a month or two ago looking considerably thin and gaunt. Tanaka didn’t mind him, but the kid was cold to most people except Yamaguchi.  _

_ The kid in front of them now certainly hadn’t had a kind life before Little Crow’s Orphanage. He had bruises covering his limbs, and a scarily small frame. He had wide eyes with almost unnaturally thin pupils. Hair flew all over his face, with a blonde chunk over his forehead.  _

_ “This is Nishinoya!” Himari had said, her hands on this kid’s shoulders. He flinched at the touch before softening.  _

_ “Hi…” He said quietly, twiddling his thumbs.  _

_ “Hello!” Tanaka said loudly, heading over excitedly to this new kid. Most of the others acknowledged the kid, but only Tanaka showed proper interest. New additions to Little Crow’s always excited him. _

_ Nishinoya looked up at him, still unsure on how to approach Tanaka. The kid meant well, but he was always so loud and crazy.  _

_ “Wanna come see the action figures?” Tanaka asked, glancing at the pile of toys on the floor. “I have a sailor moon one!” He said, proud of this collection. The kid seemed to perk up at the mention of a familiar name, allowing Tanaka to drag him over to the pile. Nishinoya didn’t appear to find Tanaka scary, which was nice.  _

_ “Woah! She looks so pretty!” Nishinoya said, picking up the figurine. She was plastic with fake hair curling out in pigtails. Nishinoya curled the hair around his finger, marvelling in the texture.  _

_ “I know right! She has such a cool dress on!” Tanaka said, looking at the dress with wonder and excitement.  _

_ The two of them became fast friends, practically joined at the hip for all their time at the orphanage. They’d been friends for a month or two before Nishinoya explained about his background. Tanaka promised to not tell any of the others, though in doing this he didn’t explain how Noya sometimes got scared with loud noises, or how big and tall people scared him.  _

**-Flashback Over-**

Nishinoya had hidden in his room after the initial clash with Asahi. He was annoyed that he’d gotten angry, but his mind was clouded with anxiety so it was all muddled in his brain. He hated when this happened, it was like everyone was annoying and he knew he was wrong but the emotions were running high so it was difficult to make rational decisions. Of course, Nishinoya didn’t know what the word rational meant, but he was emotionally intelligent enough to get the gist of it. Nobody had come up after him yet, which was a blessing and a curse. It would be nice to get a hug and be told that everything would be alright, yet it was great to be alone. 

His alone time ended with a soft knock on the door which could only belong to one certain Sugawara Koushi. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all of you for reading so far! Not to be a bother, but Kudos and comments really make our day! Also, It's really great to hear your opinions on what we write! Also, sorry for all the unsatisfying endings! We will add more fulfilling endings to our chapters as the story progresses! :D


	7. The Visit pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back! This is a pretty underwhelming chapter for such a long time away, but I hope you enjoy! We're not planning on ending the series any time soon, so stay tuned for more! :D

“I’m sorry, I mean it!” Asahi said. He was a little shaken up by the sudden change in mood since Noya’s outburst but at this point, he was a bit more worried by the frustration painted on Daichi’s face. By now all the kids were looking in confusion at the two adults, tension in the room suffocating to most. 

“I know you didn’t mean to, Asahi.” Daichi said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That doesn’t stop him from panicking like that, does it?” The words stung with a sort of bitterness that rubbed off on the kids, this was the first time that they’d seen Daichi like this. Despite only knowing him for a few days, they were sure that he was a kind, seasoned man. This was a surprise to them. 

“Don’t get angry like this in front of them, Sawamura.” Kiyoko scolded Daichi. She knew that he got really protective over the children, but he couldn’t watch himself, and arguing wouldn’t be good for the kids, especially those who were sensitive to that type of thing. It was clear by the way that some of them flinched a lot, or just in the general way they carried themselves that some of them hadn’t had the best lives so far.

“You’re right.” Daichi sighed, shooting an apologetic glance at Asahi. 

“I’m going to go check on him.” Sugawara said, breaking his silence. He got up with a solemn look on his face and headed upstairs. He was running different things to say through his mind, but everything he thought of was too brash or just… wrong. 

Time for thought ran out when Suga found that his footsteps had carried him outside of Nishinoya and Tanaka’s shared bedroom. 

He knocked quietly and softly, his knocks forming a crescendo as he became increasingly more frustrated with himself about what had happened. He had to mentally remind himself that he was a good parent and that he was doing the right thing. 

“Nishinoya?” He asked softly, trying to be quiet and careful with his words. A soft mumble was heard in response, though no words were spoken from the kid on the other side of the door. 

“I’m really sorry about what happened, I’m sure that Asahi didn’t want to… Hurt you. He is really just a huge teddy bear that wanted to give you a high five! Of course, he knows why you ran away, sometimes everything can seem  _ super _ scary, especially with someone like Asahi. He is really sorry and says that you can have his cookie.” Sugawara was trying to talk without saying that Nishinoya was in the wrong. He was watching himself extremely carefully because he knew that the kid was already fragile based on the previous events. 

“I can have his cookie?” A small voice emerged from behind the door, broken from crying. 

“Yeah! Yachi got them out of the oven and they looked  _ sooo _ cool!” Koushi smiled, leaning against the wall. 

“That’s cool, but I wanna stay up here for a bit.” Nishinoya said. Suga noted that Noya’s voice had evened out and he was sniffling less. 

“Okay! The others are gonna leave soon, but they said goodbye!” 

Nishinoya nodded, though his father couldn’t see. He was still all muddled up, not really sure that he wanted to go back downstairs. Everybody would be loud and crazy, with a lot of  _ questions. _ Boy, did Noya hate questions. They were so annoying, always trying to get up in your business. He liked the questions that asked what his favourite color was, or what his favourite television show was. He could—and would—go on and on for hours on end about subjects like that. But the questions “Why are you crying”, “Do you hate your parents” Or anything like that got on his nerves. 

\---

Suga opened the door to a still worried group of people. They looked to him curiously, awaiting answers. 

“He’s okay, just a bit nervous still.” Suga sighed, taking his place on the couch. 

“We’d better take our leave.” Yachi said. The kids pouted at this though they were assured it was for the best. They clearly liked Yachi, her smiles and fun imprinting well on them. Tanaka seemed especially disappointed that Yachi and Kiyoko were leaving, however, his mind was still caught on Nishinoya’s outburst. Tanaka could not recall any time when Noya had done something like this. He’d always been calm, even if he was quite shy. The two of them had been so… Happy. Not like this. Of course, everything still felt confusing and hard to understand. It made his head hurt. 

Sugawara understood why the adults were going. He was going to ask them to stay for dinner, but it didn’t seem appropriate after the prior events.

Assorted goodbyes were heard from the group, some more solemn than others, The general mood had deflated, though it wasn’t really anybody’s fault. If anything, Sugawara wished that Asahi  _ would just stop damn apologising and accept forgiveness already. _ It was really annoying how Asahi took forever to get out of a bad mood, always moping about and feeling bad. It was something that countless chops to the side and rather aggressive reminders couldn’t seem to fix so Sugawara gave up after high school. Daichi was still a bit agitated from the whole ordeal, he was still processing it. Daichi was often one to deal with an event fine in the moment, and then beat himself up over it—Or just feel bad in general—afterwards. He’d sit there and think of how he could’ve done something differently, or just realise that what just happened was  _ bad _ . 

Suga knew that he wasn’t necessarily exempt from criticism when it came to how he dealt with important problems and decisions. Sometimes he would spend too much time thinking about how everyone else would feel that he becomes too indecisive and nothing gets done. Most of the time his empathy is a great skill to have, but he can overvalue the emotions of others and gets caught up in trying to make everyone happy.

He leant against the door, sliding down with a sigh as the muffled sounds of cars starting appeared to echo through the house. Daichi walked past on his way to the master bedrooms, not stopping as he was enveloped in his own thoughts.

Tanaka sauntered over, launching into a hug that both surprised and pleased the ashen-haired father. 

“C'mon guys! Get over here!” He half-yelled to the others, who joined in on the hug. It was suffocating in a good way for Suga. The feeling of a hug from everyone was something he didn’t know he needed. Eventually, Sugawara got up to make dinner while the kids all mingled in various places around the house. 

Tanaka gingerly made his way upstairs, flinching with every creak of the stairs. He was going to try and visit Nishinoya, though he wasn’t entirely sure how this would work. Just go in and talk, don’t think about it.

“Yuuuu?” He drawled, peeping his head into their shared room. He saw Nishinoya going through some picture books on his bed. The short kid lifted his head to see who it was, his posture softening at the realization that it was Tanaka at the door. 

“Oh. Ryu.” He said nervously, gently closing the book. His cheeks were dusted slightly pink, and his eyes were sad. That’s what Tanaka gathered from the situation. Noya didn’t have the most expressive face. Most of the other kids would scrunch their noses or frown, but he didn’t. You could tell from his eyes though. His eyes changed so subtly, yet the small changes in them were so obvious. 

“Are you okay?” Tanaka asked loudly. 

Nishinoya’s eyes widened slightly, whether it was in confusion at the question or in shock at the volume was a hard question. 

“Ummm, yeah?” Noya said, though he didn’t sound very sure of himself. Tanaka squinted slightly in question.

“You sure?”

"Yes.” A less shaky voice now came from him as he made eye contact. “I just thought he was gonna… Y’know…” He let Tanaka finish that sentence for himself. 

“Yep.” 

“Has everybody gone yet?”

Tanaka nodded. “You get Asahi’s cookie.” 

Nishinoya hid a small smile as he turned over a page of his book. He felt kind of bad for taking Asahi’s cookie, but Asahi had scared him so he  _ totally _ deserved that. Noya would say sorry after he’d eaten the cookie so there were no takebacks. 

When the scent of dinner wafted into their room, both of the kids perked up, noticing it at the exact same time. 

“Dinner!” They shouted in unison before racing downstairs. Suddenly, all of the previous events were ignored as the family sat, talked and laughed. 

A temporary period of peace was upon them. 


	8. New friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisuga are old men

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😈🥶🔥🔥YUH COMIN IN CLEAN WITH THE UPDATE😈🥶🔥🔥😤😈😼 ME AND MY HOMIES LOVE UPDATES🥶🔥🔥😈😼

The school week was back, with all the kids heading off to their school. They were still decently new as they’d had to transfer when they moved in, but they’d been at school for a few days so far. The school was modest, a few blocks of classrooms as well as singular classes spread across campus. It was far smaller than the local high school, but still of a decent size. The green tiles of the school roof was a match to Yamaguchi's hair, who was nervously clutching his seatbelt. 

"Hey Tsukki, do you think the kids are going to like me?" He anxiously asked. He couldn’t possibly imagine how terrible it would be if someone were to take a dislike to him on the  _ first day _ . 

"Huh? Why wouldn't they? You aren't annoying like Sho-Chan or as angry as Kageyama so I don't see any reasons for our class to hate you." Tsukishima said.

This made Yamaguchi smile a bit. "Thanks, Tsukki!" Yamaguchi was a kid that always needed to be reassured. He had a lack of confidence in himself which had to be helped by compliments and reassurances for even the littlest things. 

"Oi Tsukishima, what did you say about me and Bakageyama?" A tiny, curious-looking head with fierce orange hair popped up from the seats in front of the two.

"I said you were annoying,” Tsukishima said, furrowing his brows. 

“ _ I _ don’t think you’re annoying, Shoyo,” Sugawara said from the passenger seat. Both him and Daichi were driving the kids to school today because Suga had a day off from his nursing job.

“Really!” Hinata said, practically bouncing in his seat. “Thanks, thanks, thanks so much!” A massive grin was spread across his face. It seemed like the excitement going back to school again was really getting to him. Hinata wasn’t a big fan of the work but most of the kids there knew him and liked him, so he loved talking to them all.

\---

Tsukishima didn’t mind school but it certainly wasn’t something he was  _ amazingly _ fond of. It was more so a thing he did because he knew he had to. He was ahead of the other kids anyway. Tsukishima didn’t find himself learning too much because of how different he was. He just found himself completing worksheets that were too easy until everyone else caught up to him. As much as it was annoying, he just tried to think of it as revision. 

“Tsukkiiiiiiiiii I don’t get itttttttttt….” Yamaguchi drawled as he dragged himself over to Tsukishima with a worksheet covered in confused scribbles. 

“Go ask someone else, I’m busy,” Tsukishima said. His tone wasn’t exactly angry, but it certainly wasn’t the kindest either. 

“Yama-chan!” A boy with caramel hair and a light tan called over to Yamaguchi, his rounded eyes wide open and a grin missing a front tooth. 

Yamaguchi looked over. Who was that? Ko….Kokatsu? That’s it! He wasn’t too familiar with the boy, nor was anyone else. It was unlike him to be social, but Yamaguchi didn’t mind as it meant he might get help with his worksheet. Yamaguchi took a glance at Kokatsu’s worksheet, which was clean and well-done. 

“Woah! How’d you do that?” He asked.

“Cmon, let me show you!”

Tsukishima watched the two of them trail off together, happy that Yamaguchi was making new friends. Tsukishima knew that Yamaguchi thought of him as his favourite sibling. He also thought Yamaguchi was cool, but Yams needed to branch out a little, find new people. He wasn’t very social besides talking to Tsukishima, let alone other people. This would be good for him.

\---

-six weeks later-

The two kids became fast friends, which was amazing to watch.

“I’m really proud of him, Sawamura,” Sugawara said, glance shifting from the two boys playing in the yard. Ever since Kokatsu began coming over more, Yamaguchi had changed a lot. He was socializing, making more friends and playing outside. It was shocking how much he’d changed in such a short time. 

“Same here.” Daichi agreed, sipping his coffee. 

He couldn’t believe that the kid playing outside with his new friend was the same kid hesitant to talk to pretty much anybody—even his own parents—just two months ago.

“He’s come so far since we adopted―Can you slice some cheese?” Sugawara said, chopping tomatoes for lunch. He waved his hand in the vague direction of the fridge. 

“Are you sure, darling?” Sawamura gently asked, taking Sugawara’s hand and placing a gentle kiss on it. He playfully smirked, trying not to double over laughing at his words.

“I think so.” Sugawara giggled, lightly shoving Daichi back towards the fridge. The brunette reluctantly began slicing the cheese, listening to the radio with his fiance. The song switched, and Suga’s eyes lit up with a sense of familiarity. 

“Ooh, this is my jam,” Suga said, causing Daichi to double over with laughter. 

“You sound so old!” Daichi said between cackles. 

“I can’t help my  _ amazing _ music taste, ‘mura,” Sugawara said, swinging his hips to the tune. Daichi laughed, abandoning the cheese to dance with his lover. Suga leant over and turned it up while bobbing to the music. The two of them danced as well as two early-middle-aged men could while assembling enough sandwiches for the whole family. Even when the song switched again to something neither of them were familiar with they kept dancing, occasionally singing along for a bit of the chorus they could remember.

“I’m a way better dancer than you, sugar.” Daichi playfully taunted, smirking at Koushi. 

“You wish, Sawamura.”

They were interrupted with the sudden sound of an opening ranchslider and two boys giggling while running inside. 

“Shoes off, boys!” Daichi said, placing a few sandwich plates on the dining table. Yamaguchi fumbled with his laces for a bit before Kokatsu doubled back to help him. 

“You gotta pull here, and then it’s done.” He said, waving his hands proudly. 

“Lunch is ready, boys.” Suga said, tapping the table where the plates sat. 

The two boys sat next to each other, nibbling on sandwiches till the others came downstairs. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a long wait! We are still updating.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this fluff! 
> 
> :)


	9. Talks.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take this minor fluff/lowkey filler, you'll need it.
> 
> :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my hand slipped and I wrote 2.1k

“Thanks so much for having him.” Kokatsu’s mother was a tall, slender woman. She was built like a model, and Sugawara was pretty sure she was one. Her hair was darker than Kokatsu’s, done up in princess curls that framed her face well. 

“Oh, it’s no issue, he’s a wonderful boy,” Daichi said, his hand lightly gripping Suga’s shoulder. It was no secret to Sugawara that Daichi was not a big fan of Kokatsu’s mother, especially since she spilt a bottle of soda on his nice shirt at the first PTA meeting held at their school. She was an exceptionally loud woman, hailing from new york. Her Japanese wasn’t  _ awful, _ but Daichi could easily catch her speaking a broken sentence or two often. He probably couldn’t count the number of times he and suga had to stop the other from bursting out laughing whenever butchered a sentence. They knew that it was probably at least a little rude of them, but it was funny, and both of them laughed at pretty much anything, especially Koushi.

“Well, we try to raise him well.” She said, a big model smile showcasing her annoyingly straight white teeth. At this, Daichi’s grip tightened a little bit. Suga loosened it and stepped forward. 

“We have to get dinner ready now, have a good evening.” Closing the door, Suga breathed out a sigh of relief. 

“Okay, I hate that woman.” Koushi slid down the door, sitting on the floor with his back on the door. He had to admit it, he didn’t like Kokatsu’s mother either, but who would he be, stopping his child from hanging out with his best friend because of some beef Koushi had with his mother. 

“ _ Now  _ you get my point,” Daichi said, squatting in front of Koushi. “She’s so loud.” 

“We’re so petty.” Suga laughed. 

“Petty with a reason.” Daichi corrected, giggling while shuffling over next to suga. “But seriously. ‘Making dinner’? It’s only two o’clock!” 

“I’ll have you know that fancy dinners take a long time to make. Not as if you’d know.” Suga joked.

“I’m  _ hurt _ .” Daichi said sarcastically.

“Daaaad! Sho-chan fell over and now he’s crying!” Tanaka’s head popped out from behind the doorframe. 

“Better go help then. Maybe you could start on your ‘fancy dinner’” Daichi said, making quotation marks with his fingers. 

He walked upstairs to go help the kids.

\---

Life continued as normal, Kokatsu would come over every once and a while. He and Yamaguchi got on well. Yamaguchi was making his way around, socially and academically. His worksheets were more organised, and he was less confused with his work. This both excited and surprised his teachers. Yamaguchi was an interesting student. He excelled ridiculously far beyond his classmates in some subjects, 

“Yuki-chaaaan! I can do it by myself!” Yamaguchi exclaimed rather loudly. His teacher would’ve told him to quieten if it wasn’t for the fact that he was proud of Yamaguchi’s growth.

“Are you  _ sure _ ?” Kokatsu asked, curiosity dripping from his words. 

Yamaguchi’s features changed for a second before he changed his answer. “Actually I don’t know. Can you help, Kokatsu?” Kokatsu grinned

“Of course, Yama-chan!” 

The two of them headed off, Kokatsu eagerly explaining the problems while pointing at the sheet.

Tsukishima couldn’t lie, Kokatsu was really smart. Probably not quite at his level, but compared to the other kids, Kokatsu was intelligent. And he had a nice house. And a lot of cool dino figures.

However, the dino figures couldn’t keep Tsukishima from finding something ‘off’ about Kokatsu. He knew that there was nothing wrong with him and Yamaguchi liked him, but Tsukishima couldn’t bring himself to dislike the boy. Or that’s what he told himself. 

  
  


\---

“Daads!” Tsukishima called, walking through the front door alone. Yamaguchi was staying over at  _ Kokatsu’s _ house; Hinata and Kageyama had raced home together, Tanaka and Nishinoya joining in and leaving him behind. The three others were all at clubs, not home for an hour or so. This was one of Tsukishima’s many free days, as he never wanted to ask for permission to do any of the clubs. Most of them cost money anyways. 

“Kei?” Daichi asked, looking up from his crossword. He was struggling with a certain word when he heard the familiar ‘click’ of the door opening. 

“Can I talk to you?” Tsukishima asked, slipping his schoolbag off where they were usually kept. He had almost decided against telling his father about what happened, but maybe Daichi would have something smart to say, maybe even keep Kokatsu away for a bit.

“Uh, yeah, of course.” Daichi said, taking off his reading glasses. He guided Tsukishima over to the couch in their living room. He was trying not to worry too much but they hadn’t been with the kids for that long. What if Tsukishima had a problem with living with them? He took a deep breath and sat next to the blonde, gaining composure as he questioned what Tsukishima needed. 

“I don’t like Kokatsu.” Daichi had to use all he had to refrain from sighing, something that no doubt would lower Kei’s confidence. 

“Can you tell me more?” Daichi said gingerly, not wanting to press too much. 

“ _ ‘Yama-chan’  _ won’t hang out with me at all anymore because he’s always with Kokatsu and their friends. They are terrible anyway! He’s lost all manners.” Tsukishima was getting fairly angry, pouting with his chin on his hands. 

“I wouldn’t say he’s lost them…” Daichi had to agree, Tsukishima had a point. Yamaguchi was by no means a bad kid, he just lost a bit of what made him… well, Yamaguchi! 

“I dunno, I just miss him. We used to hang out all the time. I wish Kokatsu weren’t here sometimes.” 

Daichi frowned slightly. It pained him to see his son sorrowful like this. Sure, Tsukishima wasn’t one to grin and giggle often, but it wasn’t like him to act so low-spirited. However, Daichi decided now was high time to teach Kei a lesson.

“Look, you can’t be Yamaguchi’s only friend. It’s great that he’s growing and making more friends. However, if he isn’t spending  _ any _ time with you, or you think he is neglecting your friendship than you should do something about it.” Daichi wouldn’t normally use large, complicated words when talking to the other kids; He could when it was Tsukishima though. The kid was intelligent, it didn’t take long for Daichi to understand that. Tsukishima would always get dibs on the after-homework-popsicles because he’d get his homework done early, he was doing maths a grade above everyone else, and he was in the ‘gifted’ class at school. Daichi didn’t really like that class, he thought it was pointless to make a class like that for  _ elementary school kids _ , much less tell them about it.

“Ok,” Tsukishima said mindlessly. He stopped listening around the time Daichi said the word ‘neglect’. Kei had decided that neglect was a scary and sad word, and even the  _ prospect _ of Yamaguchi neglecting their relationship made him really sad. Yeah, he and Yamaguchi were brothers(?) now, but Tsukishima saw them as best friends, no matter how cold he appeared. Was his coldness what drove Yamaguchi away? Tsukishima couldn’t lie, he didn’t really have any other friends. He had his brothers, but those guys Tsukishima could actually see as brothers of his. They differed a lot more from him then Yamaguchi did, despite how the relationships between everybody seemed. Kei and Tadashi shared far more similarities than most would expect. They both preferred places with fewer people, really,  _ really _ liked dinosaurs and were intelligent for their age. There were far more, but Tsukishima didn’t even think he could list them all. 

“You need to listen to me, Tsukishima.” Daichi’s voice was stern, but his face was comforting and soft. Head tilted slightly, eyebrows raised a bit and a small smile. 

“I know, I just don’t like to think that Yamaguchi could be neglecting our friendship like that.” The end of his sentence had clear hints of disbelief, of which Daichi couldn’t blame him for feeling. The two of them were seemingly inseparable.

“Yeah, Yeah.” 

The two of them slowly let the conversation derail, talking about whatever came to mind; whether it was Daichi complaining about the scores of the latest volleyball game or bragging about how he’s known Bokuto Koutarou since high school, or Kei rambling about the dino figure recolours he saw on an advert while doing homework online. 

“Oh, the time!” Daichi exclaimed, standing quickly, running to the kitchen bench and grabbing his keys. He was supposed to be picking up the boys since Koushi’s shift ran late. 

“Make sure the boys don’t burn the house down, I’m picking up the others!” He ran out of the house. The Daichi-Sugawara household was currently in possession of two vehicles, the blue van and a silver Mazda, able to fit five people inside. The van was for when they needed to transport the kids, while the Mazda was for work-related things or when there weren’t many family members heading to a certain destination. If both of them needed to use a car-i.e they were both going to work at the same time, it was paper scissors rock over who got the smaller car. Whenever either of them went to their respective workplaces with the van, they got teased. 

For Daichi, it was lucky that Sugawara  _ always _ chose scissors. 

\---

A week later, Tsukishima made plans to tell Yamaguchi how he felt. He was worried, as there was a chance this could ruin their friendship. They had to live together! Tsukishima definitely wasn’t a clingy person at all, but the thought of his  _ best friend _ (and brother) not liking him at all anymore was frightening. 

The first few classes passed without much bother, Tsukishima still gave Kokatsu looks whenever he went over to help Yamaguchi with something. Tsukishima offered to help but was turned down for the  _ first  _ time. Ever. Yamaguchi said they could work together lately. 

The final class before morning tea was maths, one of Yamaguchi’s weaker subjects. 

“I really don’t need your help, Kokatsu.” Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow, folding his arms. 

“You got that problem wrong though,” Kokatsu said; almost desperately? Tsukishima was definitely confused. He could use a lot of rather unsavoury words to describe Kokatsu, but desperate certainly was not one of them. Kokatsu was the type of kid to always hold his head high, play all the sports you could imagine and excel in all of them. He was a wonderful boy, despite his young age. He was smart but not mature. To Tsukishima, Kokatsu ever being even the slightest bit desperate didn’t feel right.

“Now, now, Kokatsu. Let’s focus on the good things here. Yama-chan got some of the hardest questions on the worksheet right! He might be helping you soon, hm?” Their elementary school teacher was a kind man, in his thirties. He sported badly cropped chestnut hair reminiscent of the first time Sugawara tried mowing the lawns. 

“‘Muraaaaaaa!” He’d complained, standing in the middle of their lawn. 

Tsukishima can remember the exact expression on his dad’s face. Disbelief combined with the need to laugh. Daichi had immediately doubled over laughing, tearing up because of how funny he thought it was. 

“It’s not funny!” Suga whined, pouting. “You have big muscles and stuff, so it’s easier for you.” 

“You don’t have to be  _ absolutely ripped _ like I am to mow a lawn, Koushi.” Daichi after that, Daichi comically flexed his muscles, earning a round of obnoxiously loud laughter from Nishinoya and Tanaka. 

Tsukishima was thrown from his thoughts as the familiar sound of the school bell shook him from his daydream. 

“Try your best to get that work back to me by the end of the week guys.” The class filed out, navigating through the twisting halls until they reached the eating area for kids in their grade. It was a nice area, with winding branches split off from thin-trunked trees that all the popular ‘cliques’ would sit under to catch a break from the morning sun. Tsukishima figured that Yamaguchi must’ve been sitting over by the vending machines where Kokatsu’s friend group was. The group liked that place because it had a small alleyway-esque area next to where they sat where they could get away with trading their lunches like the teachers said not to. Kokatsu always bought sweet fruit gummies every day, and it would be a battle between all the kids on who got them each day. 

Kei walked over, hearing faint voices with a lack of laughing, for some reason. Normally the group were constantly joking and laughing, sometimes even in the middle of lessons. Now that Tsukishima listened closely, the voices sounded… Angry? His footsteps sped up, confused by the ngative tones that the conversation contained in the alley. Finally making it to the alley, walked straight in, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

“Tadashi?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Oops


End file.
